Sky Twitter hack was a prank, Android apps not hacked and replaced

Things you might also like

Sky has confirmed to Pocket-lint that its apps haven't been hacked and replaced as suggested by the company's Sky Help Team Twitter account on Sunday morning.

"Sky Android apps previously downloaded by Sky customers are unaffected and there is no need to remove them from Android devices," the company told us in a statement on Sunday night.

The official statement comes after the Sky Help Team Twitter account sent out a message on Sunday morning causing many to panic that their phone had been compromised:

"We are aware that the Android apps of Sky+, Sky News were hacked and replaced... please remove the apps if you are already installed it," it said.

The company has told Pocket-lint that its Twitter account was compromised.

Earlier on Sunday the anonymous group revealed it had targeted the apps by posting its logo and the words "Syrian Electronic Army was here" in the description box on each app's page on Google Play, before trying to then supposedly warn users via the company's Twitter account for added effect.

Sky is the latest broadcaster to be compromised in the past couple of weeks. On Friday, British broadcaster ITV had one of its Twitter feeds hacked by anonymous supporters of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, just days after Twitter beefed up security to prevent such attacks.

Google has currently pulled all the apps from the Google Play Store; Sky hasn't said when the apps will be available for download once again.

UPDATE: Sky has issued the following statement (28/5/13):

"Several of Sky’s Android apps have been temporarily removed from the Google play store after app pages were defaced early on Sunday morning. We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused to Sky customers wanting to download our Android apps and are working hard to make these apps available again as soon as possible. Sky Android apps that Sky customers have previously downloaded should continue to work as normal, so there is no need for customers to remove these apps from their Android device."